If You Can Do This Combo Without Rest, Your Core Is Decades Younger
A “young” core is about much more than simply aesthetics. Sure, sculpted abs look great, but maintaining a strong, youthful body isn’t necessarily about having a flat tummy. Instead, it means “your body can still organize itself efficiently,” says Melody Morton-Buckleair (aka The Pilates Cowgirl), founder and president at Elmwood Place Pilates. This includes having solid stamina, postural control, and breath support without feeling like you’re about to collapse. In order to see where you stand, Melody created a core strength combo that may humble you.
“The core never works alone in real life,” Melody explains. “It stabilizes while you move through space, twist, breathe, shift your weight. Combo moves challenge all of that at once. Sit-ups don’t. They just train flexion—which isn’t how we move, and definitely not how we age well.”
Now, let’s dive into one of Melody’s go-to core tests that she says “looks easy on paper, but humbles most people.”
If You Can Do This Combo Without Rest, Your Core Is Decades Younger
- Begin in a forearm plank with your forearms on the ground and body in a straight line.
- Lift into a pike, breathing out as you pull your belly up and in.
- Use control to lower without drooping.
- Perform cross-body mountain climbers, driving your left knee toward your right elbow and then right knee toward your left elbow, one at a time.
- Continue to alternate.
- Repeat for 60 to 90 seconds without resting.
“This combo lights up the entire core cylinder—diaphragm, transverse abs, pelvic floor, obliques, deep spinal stabilizers, and shoulder support,” Melody points out. “It also trains timing, breath coordination, and spinal alignment—all of which get ignored in traditional ab work.”
If you lose form or breath while completing this combo, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re weak.
“It just means the deep system isn’t firing together,” Melody explains. “That’s useful information. It shows exactly where to rebuild.”
